Rangers tie it late, then suffer overtime loss to Kraken in road-trip opener
Igor Shesterkin #31 of the New York Rangers looks on during the second period against the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena on November 17, 2022 in Seattle, Washington. Credit: Getty Images/Alika Jenner
SEATTLE – It’s been increasingly obvious that things are different for the Rangers this year than they were last year, and it was never more apparent than Thursday night, in the opener of their four-game West Coast road trip against a second-year Seattle Kraken team at Climate Pledge Arena.
Igor Shesterkin, whose brilliance earned him the Vezina Trophy last season as the NHL’s goalie – while also earning the Rangers a bunch of wins they probably didn’t deserve – played perhaps his best game of the season Thursday against the Kraken, and this year, that turned out not enough to steal the Rangers a win.
Instead, Justin Schultz’s second goal of the game, this one with 1:21 left in overtime, gave the Kraken a 3-2 overtime victory, getting the road trip off to a disappointing start.
“He made some great saves, some key saves, especially in that second period when it was 1-1,’’ Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said of Shesterkin, who made 30 saves in all, though many of them were of the top shelf variety. “He kept us in the game, and then we found a way to get a point in the end. But it's not good enough. We're better than that.’’
Gallant was miffed at his team because after a strong first period, in which the Rangers (8-6-4) dominated possession and outshot Seattle, 14-6, the Blueshirts were thoroughly outplayed in the second period, when they were outshot, 16-5. Only Shesterkin’s brilliance allowed them to still be tied, 1-1 entering the third.
Schultz’s first goal, at 9:27 of the third period, a long shot that bounced off the shinpad of Rangers defenseman Braden Schneider, gave the Kraken a 2-1 lead, but the Rangers rallied to force overtime on Vincent Trocheck’s 6-on-4 power-play goal, with Shesterkin pulled for the extra skater, with 1:54 remaining.
Afterward, the Rangers lamented their performance – or lack of it – in the second period, when they really could have been blown out had it not been for Shesterkin.
“When we play well, and we generate the shots, I mean, opportunities are there,’’ captain Jacob Trouba said. “That's how we have to play. But we can't get away from it. We know what happens when we do get away from that. That's what you saw in the second period. We’ve got to stay with that game that we played the first. And we got back to it for a good part of the third and the power play came up big tonight and got us a point… but yeah, we’ve got to play that game consistently.’’
Shesterkin was tested early and made a great save on Jared McCann barely two minutes into the game to keep the Kraken off the board, but the Rangers’ relief was only temporary, as, seconds later, before the puck could be cleared out of the zone, McCann deflected in a shot by Will Borgen to give Seattle a 1-0 lead at 2:45.
But the Rangers were able to shrug off that early setback and tied the score on a power play goal by Mika Zibanejad, his 10th goal of the season, at 14:58, and the game was 1-1 at the first intermission.
Shesterkin stopped a partial breakaway by Morgan Geekie midway through the period and then, on the same shift, had to make a wicked glove save on a clean breakaway by Daniel Sprong to keep it at 1-1. The Rangers’ best chance to score came when Kaapo Kakko got sent in on partial breakaway from the blue line in, but Kraken goalie stayed with Kakko through a forehand-backhand-forehand move and held his pad against the post to stop the final shot with 6:45 remaining in the period.
Blue shorts
Gallant opted to use the same lineup Thursday that he did in the last game, Sunday against the Arizona Coyotes, meaning 25-year-old Julien Gauthier played in his 10th game of the season. That is significant because if the Rangers decide at some point later in the season that they want to send Gauthier down to the minor leagues, they will have to expose him to waivers. And the way Gauthier has played since being recalled from AHL Hartford Oct. 26, there’s almost no way he would get through waivers without being claimed by another team. . . . Forward Vitali Kravtsov, who’d missed the last two games because of an infected tooth that required surgery, missed a third straight game. The other two scratches were forward Ryan Reaves, who sat out a second straight game and six of the last seven, and D Zac Jones, who has now sat out four straight.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
